Stories from The Cafe Musain
by BadWolfWhoWaited
Summary: Deleted scenes, extra scenes, oneshots and miscellaneous awesome that fit into the verse of 'The Price We Have To Pay'. You may need to actually read 'The Price We Have To Pay' to understand exactly what's going on here. Enjoy!
1. I: Escape

**Hi all! This is the first of a (hopefully) long series of deleted scenes from my 'Price We Have To Pay'. Just...anything from that 'verse really. **  
**If you haven't read my Price We Have to Pay story, I suggest you do just so you have some idea about what the hell is going on. **  
**But this first one is pretty obvious, so...yeah. Enjoy!**

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**ESCAPE**

Azelma Thernardier was a shrewd young woman.  
Despite Eponine's many attempts to shield her from the harder parts of their pitiful existence, Azelma was aware of the fact that yes, her father was a crook and a dick, and that yes, one day she would end up either selling her body or making her pickpocket or maybe a mixture of both.  
But probably just the prostitution.

It was only thanks to Eponine that she wasn't already spending her nights in someone elses bed, with grubby hands on her skin and hot, wet mouths covering hers.

Eponine protected her, had always protected her, tried to keep her as pure as possible because it was far too late for Eponine.

"There's no hope of saving me, not after...everything. But...but...if I try Zel...if I try really hard I might just save you" Eponine had whispered to her one night, curled up on the same bed for warmth.

Azelma remembered that night, remembered pretending to be asleep as Eponine wrapped too-thin arms around her and sobbed soundlessly into her hair.

She remembered the smell of alcohol and desperation clinging to Eponine like a second skin, the slanting moonlight and the shadow of the windowframe on the floorboards. She remembered Eponine's breathing steadying, and Azelma finally daring to turn around in her sister's arms to look at the bruises blossoming across her skin in shades of purple and blue that later turned lurid yellow.

Her sister, her broken guardian angel, battered and bruised but still fighting for her, always fighting for her, never giving up.

That had been nearly three years ago, when Azelma was twelve and Eponine was going on fifteen, so young but so determined to protect Azelma and Gavroche with everything she had.  
That night three years ago was the night Azelma realised her sister wasn't invicible anymore.

Tonight, as her sister picked her broken body up off the floor and stumbled into the street, whisperin 'Taire' under her breath like some sort of prayer, limping and shuffling, bleeding and bruised, but not defeated,not just yet, Azelma realised her sister was just as mortal as she was.

And Azelma cried now.

Azelma cried silent tears alone in her house, her father sleeping drunkenly next door, her mother out on the streets trying to make up for Eponine's mistake.

Azelma cried as she realised Eponine wasn't strong enough to protect her anymore, that one day soon she wouldn't be able too, that Azelma was fourteen now and she was curvy and pretty and her father was already considering selling her once more.

Azelma cried when she realised the only way she could help Epoinine was if she gave in or ran away-and both of those involved breaking her sisters heart.

Azelma's tears stopped as she vowed to herself she would escape-for Eponine, for Vroche, for her Maman who had never wanted this life for them-that she would not let anyone make her their tool to be rented out, she would let no one turn her into a tool.

She would not be her sister.

She was Azelma Thernardier, she was unbroken.

She would escape.

One day, she would be free.

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**Ah, little 'Zelma...I do so love her. XD**  
**Enjoy, and read The Price We Have To Pay if you're not already!**  
**Love, BWWW**


	2. II:Will She Though?

**Now we see what happened...the drugging Eponine referred too, why she is avoiding her friends like the plague. **  
**Come! Let all be revealed...**  
**Next chapter is her druggie dream, just FYI XD**

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**WILL SHE THOUGH?**

Bruised ribs. A dislocated shoulder. Broken fingers. Multiple bruises. Miraculously, no concussion, although that had been a possibility for a while there. A sprained ankle. Several shallow lacerations.

More that he couldn't see because Eponine refused to take off her clothes and Combeferre had to do everything by feel alone.

Eponine smiled meekly up at Enjolras from Grantaire's as Combeferre cleaned up her cuts, looking oddly young and innocent.

Wrapped in an old, stained jersey that belonged to Grantaire, her legs folded beneath her and her soft, pretty hair tumbling around her shoulders, she might have cut a pretty picture.  
But one eye was swelled shut and bruises blossomed in lurid yellows, sickly greens and violent purples and blues on delicate, snow-white skin.

Before she had calmed down enough to shower, in her ripped clothes and covered with blood and muck, skittering away from their outstretched hands and pleading voices, Enjolras had considered her to be disturbing.

Now, looking up at him with tired eyes, a smile on her face as if this was just another day, Enjolras could only think that she looked tragic.

Worse than before.

Before, her fear, that wild look in her eyes and her cowering in a corner was expected.

Expected was something Enjolras could deal with.

Now Eponine sat on Grantaire's bed, beaten and broken in ways that were not visible even to Enjolras, and she smiled shyly as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

A dark, treacherous little voice deep inside Enjolras's brains wondered if maybe this wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

Behind Comberferre, Grantaire paced, shoothing glances at the ex-med student's ministrations with flinty eyes, almost shaking with fury.

Combeferre's gentle eyes gleamed angrily as his gentle fingers skimmed over a particularly angry bruise and Eponine flinched-just a little.

It was barely noticeable, but the silence in the room magnified the tiny intake of breath and the sharp exhale.

Eponine was watching him as he unashamedly swept his eyes over her body, lingering on the bruises, until his eyes locked with hers.

"You should see the other guy" She joked weakly.

Enjolras arched an eyebrow disapprovingly, and Eponine's sheepish smile faded.

_"You_ should see a doctor" Combeferre murmured.

Eponine whipped her head to the side, anger written in ever furrowed line of her forehead, the flash in her eyes.

"No. No hospital" Eponine said stubbornly.

Grantaire paused his pacing, looking at the younger girl pleadingly.

"'Ponine-" Grantaire pleaded.

"No. No. Fucking. Way. I'll see that old American, what's her name-"  
"Doctor Eldrige" Enjolras supplied grudgingly, adjusting his positiong so he leaned against the doorframe.  
"Yeah, her, but no hospital" Eponine said firmly.

"Eponine-" Combeferre sighed.  
"No" Eponine interrupted. 'And that's the last I want to hear of it"

Even with her black eye and bruised cheek and her split lip, Eponine managed to get her point across, still managed to be authorative and commanding and fearsome.

Maybe the fact that her thin, tiny frame was battered added to it even.

The men fell silent.

Grantaire walked over to the other side of the bed, gingerly lowing himself down next to Eponine, the girl's left hand almost immediatley reaching out to tangle their fingers together and rest the intertwined hands on top of the bedsheets.

Eponine's head fell heavily onto Grantaire's shoulder, her eyes shut tight as Combeferre skimmed his fingers over her mangled right hand, Grantaire's blank mask briefly cracking to show pure, murderous fury, before the lines in his forehead and around his eyes and mouth smoothed out as Eponine glanced up at him.

"It hurts" She whimpered.

Grantaire's mouth thinned into a grim line.

"I know" He murmured, his other hand reaching up to brush the hair off her face.

"I know 'Ponine"  
Eponine collapsed back onto Grantaire wearily, unable to hold herself high any longer, and consequently didn't see the sleeping pills Combeferre took out of the packet and placed in his hand.

Enjolras took a readying step forward, dreading what was to come but there really was no other alternative-

"_She's smart, she wont take the water and she'll try to run. Joly's already played that trick on her, remember? When 'Vroche's arm was broken. If someone's hurt, if she's hurt, she'll only take water she poured herself" Grantaire argued, eyes blazing angrily at the mere suggestion of drugging his best friend._

"_We'll have to hold her down then" Enjolras said quietly, firmly.  
"We-we can't do that-not now" Grantaire hissed furiously, gesturing wildly, angrily._

_Combeferre steepled his fingers and touched them to the bridge of his nose, huffing out a long sigh.  
"Do you want her to die after bleeding internally Grantaire?" Enjolras snapped._

_Grantaire opened his mouth, ready for an angry retort, but Combeferre interrupted._

"_Her pupils looked dilated" Combeferre murmured._

"_That's not good" Enjolras sighed.  
"What do you mean 'not good' 'Ferre?" Grantaire was panicking, whipping his head around wildly, eyes wide and worried and full of pain.  
"I think she's concussed. She _needs_ a hospital" Combeferre stressed urgently.  
"She'll kill us if we bring her to a hospital. She made me promise 'Ferre-no hospitals"  
"Would you rather a broken promise or a dead friend?"_

Grantaire took a deep breath and squeezed Eponine's hand tighter, before nodding at the others.

Grantaire swung himself over Eponine, straddling her waist and pinning her arms back.

Her eyes flew open, her mouth opening to scream as Enjolras held down her legs.

"L-let go. Let go Taire. 'Taire this isn't funny let-LET GO!"

She thrashed. She tried to kick. She screamed.

Oh how she screamed.

But it was those eyes-wide open and filled with betrayal and anger and this disbelief, like they'd broken her heart.

Like they stabbed a knife into her back and then_ twisted. _

Like they were destroying her.

Enjolras squeezed his eyes shut as Grantaire whispered apology after apology, begging, pleading with Eponine to forgive him, to understand that he had to help her and this was the only way.

It didn't last for long.  
Combeferre forced the pills down her throat, pinching her nose until she was forced to swallow, her thrashing weakining until finally...it stopped.

Those accusing eyes closed, and Grantaire slid off of her, hung his head in his hands and groaned.

"What have we done?" He moaned.  
"We've saved her life, 'Taire" Combeferre said gently, although his pale face and trembling hands showed that he, too, was shaken by what they had just seen, what they had just done.  
"We just restrained a girl who was beaten within an inch of her life and force fed her drugs, a situation she was obviously familiar with seeing as halfway through my name changed from Grantaire to 'Father'" Grantaire hissed. "She-she begged me not to hurt her Combeferre!"

Combeferre had no answer for that. He stood there, eyes wide and jaw tight, staring at the unconcious girl on the bed.

"We were helping her. Eponine will understand when she wakes up" Enjolras soothed.  
"Will she though?" Grantaire snapped angrily.

No one could answer that.

"Her stomach's a mess-there might be internal bleeding. We have to get her to a hospital right away" Combeferre urged.

"We'll take my car-it's bigger than you're bomb. Apollo-" Grantaire tossed the keys to Enjolras and scooped Eponine into his arms.  
"I can't drive manual" Enjolras said automatically.

Grantaire smiled a wry smile.

"Mine's an automatic, genius"

The three men shot out of the building and towards the hospital in Grantaire's car, Eponine's limp form sprawled out on Combeferre's and Grantaire's laps, the girl's eyelids twitching as she dreamed.

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**All has been revealed. **  
**I'm so evil to poor Eponine XD**


	3. III: Dreams

Direct follow on from last chapter, Eponine's drugged-up dreams while she's in hospital. Enjoy!

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**DREAMS**

"_Falling down the rabbit hole like that...you always were clumsy Ep" Azelma-the-dormouse said from her lofty porch on the tall, tall table.  
Eponine sat on a black-and-white tiled floor dressed in a pretty blue dress with a blindingly, bleached-white apron and sparkly red high-heeled boots.  
"And those boots...I always said you'd break your ankle, and now you have"  
One of the shoes was suddenly replaced by a cast. _

_Sparkly red, of course._

"_How are you supposed to riverdance NOW Ep?" Azelma demanded. Eponine furrowed her eyebrows, confused beyond words for a moment._

"_Riverdance?" Eponine finally asked.  
"Yes, riverdance! The Alien's stole Vroche's voice and you have to win it back" Azlema said, as if she was speaking to a small child who just didn't understand._

"_...by riverdancing?" Eponine's voice was soaked in a disbelief and a healthy helping of 'oh god my sister's insane'.  
"Yes! Weren't you listening?" Azelma groaned, rubbing her furry forehead with her paw._

"_But now that you've broken your ankle...how are you supposed to...what are we going to do!" Azelma cried out.  
"Look, Zel, I'm sure it's going to be FINE-"  
"It's NOT GOING TO BE FINE! Right Enjolras?" _

_A small table that Eponine was sure hadn't been there before was suddenly to the left of Azelma. Enjolras was wearing a top hat while the Amis sat sipping tea and discussing crochet patterns. _

"_She's right Eponine-if you can't riverdance you wont save Gavroche" Enjolras said with a sigh.  
The rest of the Amis nodded and murmured their agreement.  
"I think blue would look best with the cadmium orange that Combeferre bought" Jehan piped up. _

"_Don't be ridiculous! A dark purple" Courfeyrac snorted. _

"_Maybe white?" Bossuet asked.  
"Then it'll just look Greek" Comberferre explained with a long suffering sigh.  
"I like the Greek's" Joly said defensively.  
"They're heads are made of garlic" Comberfere snapped._

_Joly paused for a moment, chewing his lip.  
"...good point" He finally assented. _

"_Where's Marius?" Eponine asked.  
"Of course you want to know where MARIUS is...he's with Gavroche. They're communicating through Dwarvish Runes in the garden" Bossuet sighed this time, leaning his chin on his hand. _

"_Just follow the yellow brick road, you'll find them...eventually" Azelma said slyly. _

_Beneath her feet, yellow brick replaced the tiling. _

"_But the yellow brick road-" Eponine began to protest, looking up._

_She stopped abruptly-her friends and her sister were gone, and so was the table, and the room._

_One a lone top hat left any sign that they were there in the first place._

"_...is from the Wizard of Oz" Eponine finished quietly. _

_Eponine sighed and started walking. _

"_This makes no sense" She muttered angrily. _

_As she walked, the road behind her began disappearing._

_Eponine turned behind her and saw the missing road. _

"_Yep. I'm crazy. Batshit fucking crazy..." She muttered, hobbling down the road awkwardly in her cast and her heel._

* * *

_It took a long time, and at the same time, no time at all._

_In fact, Eponine couldn't rightly remember HOW she arrived at the Garden, just that she did and Gavroche was napping under a tree while Marius walked along the outside of the garden, his hands behind his back and a smile on his face._

_Marius was covered in yellow sticky notes, scribbles that Eponine assumed were supposed to be Dwarvish Runes scrawled on the paper in thick red marker._

"_Marius...Marius!" Eponine cried out.  
Marius didn't answer, still smiling blankly.  
Eponine limped closer, off the yellow brick road, her left foot refusing to move properly. _

"_Marius...c'mon Marius, it's me! Ponine!" Eponine laughed._

_Marius did not turn around, he just stood there, among the flowers and the bees and the trees, humming under his breath as he walked. _

_Eponine stood in front of him._

_He stopped. _

"_Marius, what do you think you're playing at?" She asked breathlessly._

_Marius's smile grew wider, and he stepped through her, taking a beautiful blonde princess dressed in rose pink into his arms and kissing her soundly._

_Grantaire, Combeferre, Enjolras, Bossuet, Joly, Bahorel, Jehan, Courfeyrac...all of them stood around her and laughed and laughed and laughed, telling her she wasn't good enough, telling her she was worthless and useless over and over again. _

_Everything spun. It was all too fast and she felt sick as she curled up on the ground, closingher eyes and holding her hands over her ears to block out all the noise..._

_When it stopped._

_Eponine opened her eyes, sat up, and looked around..._

_and the road was gone._

_Everything was gone._

_There was nothing but a barren, empty field with greying grass and leafless trees and a sky full of clouds looming ominously above her._

"_Where's the road?" Eponine whispered. _

"_Where am I supposed to go? Where's Marius and Gavroche? WHERE'S THE ROAD?" She screamed._

_Only the echo of her own voice answered her._

_She was all alone, everything was...gone._

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**More to come one day soon!**

**-BWWW**


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